


Part of Your World

by sweetlolixo



Series: Part of Your World [1]
Category: the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Aoi is a mermaid, Kai is a flounder, M/M, Uruha is a royal prince
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 16:08:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4883203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetlolixo/pseuds/sweetlolixo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Heavily inspired by The Little Mermaid. </i>Prince Uruha wakes up to beautiful singing and a talking fish. (Said fish is very protective of person with beautiful singing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part of Your World

**Author's Note:**

> Fic originally posted onto LiveJournal [here](http://sweetlolixo.livejournal.com/191250.html) on September 27, 2013.

The first time Uruha meets Aoi, it isn’t a typical occurrence, no.  
  
Uruha remembers boarding a large ship, where his uncle had been ready to set them off for sail to new adventures, a plan he’d had for a year in works now, having devised an elaborate route along the map and everything. The blond haired prince didn’t share the same wanderlust that his uncle had, but he loved the enthusiasm his uncle had for his passion, and succumbed to his uncle’s wishes for him to join him on his ‘little’ expedition. Of course, with the young prince in tow, it meant even more preparations and cautionary ventures the servants had to take, to ensure that nothing would happen to the future king on his journey around the world. His mother had been wary and reluctant to let him go – she doted on her only son too much – ; but his father was convinced that allowing Uruha to leave the walls of the palace and the confines of their area would broaden the blond’s horizons, and hopefully teach him a thing or two about being a better ruler by the time it was time for him to take over the throne. Uruha had complied, and by the time the day came for him to set off for his journey, he was surprised they hadn’t just told him to stay home instead.  
  
The main cruise he would be sailing on was large, far bigger than any other ships he’d ever seen, and if he wouldn’t be safe on that  _thing_ , he wouldn’t know what else could keep him safer. It was routinely inspected upon every few hours or so, ship engineers hurriedly bustling about to make sure everything was in place. There were four other smaller boats surrounding the main ship, boats that he knew would have experienced pilots guiding them, just to look out for any unforeseen danger ahead that might threaten the prince’s safety. Uruha had sighed then, knowing his mother had a big part to play in this; he was already a grown up, twenty five years of age, and his mother still refused to see him as anything else but her little baby boy.  
  
The first night they were out in the ocean (finally, after an unexpected three hours of delay when an engineer mistakenly  _thought_  he saw a problem with the ship’s mechanics and it had thrown his mother off who was refusely sobbing and begging for Uruha to change his mind and stay home and it had taken another hour for the servants to pull the queen back and pacify her that everything was going to be okay and  _yes_ , there would be at least twenty rescue boats to save Uruha if he ever drowned) they threw a party on the deck, a band of musicians playing merry music at the side, with some children and young couples beginning to clear the way and creating their own makeshift dance floor, dancing their old traditional dances joyfully to the upbeat music that they usually played at festivals back at home. The older men stayed to the side, near the frontline of the ship, and though they’d brought liquor and a bunch of beer and intoxicated themselves for the evening, Uruha had declined them and preferred to sit back and watch instead, amusing himself with sitting in amongst the group of old men chatting drunkenly about all their sailing adventures. They were all experienced sailors, with many years of sailing history behind them, and since this was Uruha’s first time out on the sea, it was a good way for him to realize what lay behind his boundaries back at the castle, and it exposed him to people not just his servants or people that fawned over him for who he was; and could barely teach him a thing.  
  
After four hours though, Uruha’s heard the same story a billion times. A sailor goes to the sea, thinks he’s going to get the biggest catch of his lifetime, only to meet the worst storm he’s ever seen, and gets tossed overboard. Luckily for him, there is land nearby, and the people help him find his way home. The amount of times they exaggerate how  _lucky_ they’ve been to be the only one alive from their overthrown ship makes Uruha roll his eyes as he forcibly laughs for the hundredth time, because the storm couldn’t have been  _that_ bad to have ‘ripped through the sky like thirty different ways and then formed the shape of God’s face, and  _then_ thundered so loud it was even worse than their mother’s own yelling’. Uruha grows to appreciate their need to magnify their stories and boast of their tales, though, since it seems to be the one thing they take pride in, each sailor trying to outdo the other by bragging about the exciting adventures they’ve gone on. They talk of their adventures to different places, the different fish they catch, but nothing interests him as much as when one sailor begins to describe avidly about one remarkable fish he’d almost caught, only for him to let it go, startled, when he’d met with its eyes and caught sight of a human’s face.  
  
“No way,  _man_! You’re saying you saw a mermaid?”  
  
“Aye, I can’t confirm it  _was_  a mermaid, but I’m just describing what I saw, y’know? You nev’r know with these things, it’s always safer to just pretend it never happened.”  
  
“But mermaids don’t exist, y’know. We all know it’s just children’s tales and stories to make the little ones happy. Must have been too drunk that one day, I think you were, mate.”  
  
“Well, I’m just saying, y’know, don’t really know what it really was. But I have to say, that one tail was the shiniest I’d ever seen. And the scales… amazing, y’know? Prettiest thing, the women would be all over it the second they saw it. I know my wife would.”  
  
“But a  _mer_ maid…” The men began guffawing loudly, snorting as they downed another can of their cheap beer. “You should have talked to it, man, maybe they’d tell you how crazy you really have become!” They seemed to laugh even harder at that, and Uruha grew visibly irritated, especially once he realized how uncomfortable it made the storyteller feel. The man was old, hair graying and hands shaking, and he looked to be in his sixties. The seriousness in his gaze as he told his story, however, proved to Uruha that he wasn’t falsifying his stories just like all the other sailors had, and when the old man looked over to Uruha and noticed the prince’s stare, he smiled briefly, shaking his head to the younger one.  
  
“Maybe I really am becoming senile and crazy, aye, years of spending my life at the sea must have given me ideas in my head.”  
  
“How do you know it’s not true?” Uruha asked quietly, the very first time he’d spoken since he sat down with the men, and the chatter among them quietened down immediately. “How long ago did it take place?”  
  
“Well…” The old sailor looked shocked that the blond was actually paying attention to him. He scratched his head, trying his best to answer the prince promptly and accurately. He  _was_  talking to the future king, after all, and it didn’t do well to fabricate a story up to him. “Maybe ten years ago, hmm? I can’t really remember, but y’know, I don’t even really know if it’s true, old man like me can’t always remember these things.”  
  
“That’s okay,” Uruha managed a gentle smile, and it seemed to ease up the sudden tension in the group quickly. Uruha realized everyone was waiting for his every word, every breath, and it didn’t occur to him that his opinion held so much of a value and importance to them. “Say, do you think you could tell me more about the mer…maid that you saw?”  
  
“Of course, it might not be real,” The old man laughed, but he obliged. “See, that one particular day, I had decided to try a new route of mine, didn’t wanna stick to the same route I went everyday since the fishes were all the same. I thought I’d do well if I tried another route, so I decided to explore my vicinity a little, just decided to take a gamble and try my luck, y’know? I travelled a little further than what was normal, and it didn’t surprise me to see little fishermen out there, it’s always safer to not go so far from home, but I was old and I’d experienced enough, I just wanted to try something new,” he chuckled, taking a sip of the beer in hand, before continuing. “I wound my net down, and at first there weren’t anything for hours, and I was prepared to go home, but the next thing I knew, it was thrashing and shaking, and I thought this is it, I’ve caught the biggest catch there is, and I hauled it up, and I saw these pretty pink scales – or at least, I thought they were pink, but then I brought them to the sunlight and it gleamed silver, and then it looked like green, so I wasn’t sure, but aye, prettiest thing I’d ever seen, and I was already calculating the price I would be able to fetch in the market for it back home.”  
  
“And then I hauled it higher, and I saw the scales ended abruptly where you would have your hips, and then it became skin, and it was the strangest thing I’d known. The poor creature was writhing, and once I took a look at its face, I got reminded of all the young maidens I saw back at home, y’know, like young Jane and Mary I have back at home, learning how to sew and cook and be a good wife for their future husband. Well, it was prettier than that, though my own daughters are pretty enough, bless, but this creature seemed too godly, too good to be true. It had long hair, but like the scales I couldn’t tell what color it was – black underwater, and then it gleamed brown, and then red in the sun. It was magical, but it was petrified, and it hid its face into its hair. It felt like it was going to speak, to beg for its release, but poor thing was trembling too hard for that, and I never knew if it could speak a word of our own or not. But it’d startled me so much, and I didn’t know if I wanted to bring home something that could get me killed, and I let it go; I dropped the net, and watched it swim off, but before it went it turned back and looked once at me, face still half hidden by its hair, and gave a shy flip of its tail, which I’m guessing was its form of greeting for a thank you or s’mething, I’m guessing. Well, it never appeared again, and I never took that route again; just, these things aren’t meant for us to know, y’know? I think it’s best if we leave them alone, and we live in our world, and they live in their world. And then it’d be better, young prince, no need to be so inquisitive.”  
  
Well, too late for that then, because Uruha had become so emotionally invested into the story to ignore the burning thought in his mind that maybe mermaids  _did_  exist in their world, and that maybe he could set sail one day to find one, too. It would be amazing, to know that things like humans existed underwater, and could communicate, and speak, and maybe they had their own kingdoms and castles and  _maybe_  they were curious of humans, and heard only about them in tales, just as humans heard about them in their own bedtime stories as children. And maybe, just maybe, that one mermaid that had escaped the old sailor’s hands had gone home and narrated her own version of how she’d encountered a human, and it’d sparked curiosity in the other mermaids, just like how it’d sparked curiosity into him.  
  
He didn’t have time to think further about that, though, because suddenly he hears his uncle’s distinct voice – drunk at that, too – crashing in upon the party and stumbling all over onto his shoulders, laughing and yapping away about how beautiful the night was.  
  
“Why’s it so quiet here, man? Come on, Uru, dance with your old man, I’ll never get a chance like this with you again.”  
  
~  
  
It hadn’t even been the third night when disaster struck. No one could have predicted the change in the weather; it had been relatively calm and peaceful the past two days, and parties went on every evening, with expeditions going off every morning till afternoon. Uruha would accompany his uncle on the smaller boats, leaving the cruise, and they would survey the waters around them, catching new species of fishes and examining them, as well as learning how deep the waters could get, and trying to find land nearby. They were too far into the ocean, though, and Uruha didn’t think they would be able to find new land until they travelled further, which would take god knows how long when. Uruha was entertained by his uncle’s theories and random assumptions he’d make as he drove the boat around, talking about different sea creatures they’d meet as they explored, but what Uruha really wanted to know more about were mermaids, and if he’d see one now since he was so far out. He made it his goal to see at least one – or catch a glimpse of its magnificent tail, because  _god_ , if that thing sparkled and changed color under the sun, Uruha wanted to at least see that for real – but when Uruha raised it up to his uncle, the possibility of seeing a mermaid, his uncle had laughed and patted Uruha on the shoulder, telling him he’d try his best to get Uruha one. And maybe bring one home for Uruha to cosy up to, if he’d like.  
  
He clearly didn’t take the young prince’s wish seriously, but just as well, because it just drove Uruha’s determination even more to find and see one, and hopefully communicate with it, and  _hell_ , if it wanted to be brought home with Uruha, Uruha sure as well would oblige it. If it was as goddess-like as the old man had described, Uruha didn’t think any of the ladies or the men or  _anything_  back at home would ever meet his expectation of beauty like a mermaid would. He can already hear his mother yelling at him in his head, thirty years down the road, wondering why her son wasn’t married yet and did it have to do with his obsession with goddamn mermaids because they weren’t real and if she was going to have to force him to lose his virginity to a woman by being present during the lovemaking herself she would goddamn do it. Well, his growing obsession with the thought of mermaids was going to be a problem for sure, and Uruha sighed at the thought of his mother never allowing him to go to the sea again after this. Still, he was going to spend at least two months out sailing, and that would be enough chances to try and catch a sight of a mermaid, right?  
  
His hopes are dashed the following evening, though, because as soon as he’s back in his cabin, writing and jotting down his thoughts into his diary, he hears people shouting from the deck, and he knows they’re in trouble. It’d been shaky, the ship rocking rather violently from side to side the past hour, but Uruha hadn’t thought much of it, thinking it to be just a casual storm that will brew past just before bedtime. But then he sees water splashing in, and the ship seemingly lowering itself down and deeper into the waters, and he thinks to himself  _well if he dies he goddamn see a mermaid or a tail before he does because he ain’t dying at the sea for nothing, curse you lord._  
  
The servants are rushing to get the rescue boats out but it’s futile, Uruha’s studied briefly about how the waters work back at home, and he knows the ship he’s in will topple before they have a chance to rescue him. And it does, in the next second, though Uruha rushes out of his room and tries to climb upper deck, deciding to  _actually_  try and save himself because he was a prince and their future ruler and if he died his mother would nag at his grave all day long he didn’t think he would ever rest at peace and damn he really should have listened to her and stayed home, nothing good would ever come out of listening to his father or his uncle or all those goddamn bastards that were useless at keeping her precious son safe.  _Men_.  
  
He manages to climb up to the deck before the next wave crashes the ship fully down, and he already sees bodies sinking, people screaming as they fell underneath the waters. The servants are trying to get to him but they’re too busy fending their own lives to even be able to help the prince, and as the ship sinks even further Uruha’s lower body gets immersed in water, and he wonders where his uncle is. His uncle isn’t on the upper deck, so clearly he’s below somewhere drowning or already dead, and the thought nerves Uruha a little, when just this afternoon they’d been laughing and exploring the waters. What an exploration this was. His heart saddens when he turns around and the water splashes over him and it gets up to his chest, and he sees a sobbing woman clutching her child who’s unresponsive and unconscious. He tries to take a step towards her but in the next moment the next wave crashes over him and the lightning strikes loudly and the water gets up to his mouth. It’s getting harder for him to breathe, to stay afloat, and as he reaches for a wooden plank nearby for that purpose, he feels a hand grab at him from underneath and pull him down, probably a servant not realizing he was a prince and wanting to desperately stay alive and grab for support like him. Uruha’s head dips underneath and even as he thrashes to stay alive he starts to feel himself lose conscious; and just before he closes his eyes he  _thinks_ he sees a flip of a sparkling tail make its way towards him and he thinks to himself,  _well, not the way I’d thought I’d die but geez, thanks lord._  
  
~  
  
 _Oh god, oh god, please don’t die on me…_  
  
Uruha drifts in and out of consciousness, his heart barely beating, and his breathing forced, feeling water clog up every of his senses, feeling it so hard to just goddamn breathe. If it was going to require so much of an effort to stay alive he’d rather be dead, Jesus Christ, but then he feels soft hands against his bare chest trying to pump him back alive, forcing the water up his throat and out his mouth; and suddenly he’s coughing out spurts of water, choking all over his throat, and his breathing is staggering and it’s not so forced anymore and he feels so much better as each round of water comes up his mouth and he spills them all over himself.  
  
 _Do you think he’ll wake up if I sing him a song? Oh, oh, Kai, don’t give me that face. He’s not going to kill me, look, he’s so beautiful._  
  
When he coughs out so much water he thinks he can’t throw up anymore, he sinks his head back against the ground, only to meet – wait… soft…. sand? He’s way too sleepy for this. His breathing is better now, and it’s easier to just lie down and feel the air enter him, but he’s so tired and he feels so weak he doesn’t think he can move. He can hear a voice in the background, soft and meek, but it’s there, spewing out words he can recognize but can’t remember in this state of his. It’s telling him to stay alive, but he can’t hear the rest, and it’s all blocked out by his groans and the pain throbbing in his head. He feels pain all over, but part of that is soothed when he feels a hand running down his hair, clutching his face gently and caressing his cheek softly. He thinks there’s no better feeling than this, just lying into the touch of… a stranger, it dawns unto him, it’s a stranger but it feels so good, so… assuring, so soft, so delicate.  
  
 _What would I give to live where you are? What would I pay to stay here beside you?_  
  
The words are becoming a melody, and he realizes he’s being sung a song, and it sounds so… magical, so goddess-like, so…  _foreign_. Like a mermaid, like a… Mer… maid… He tries to open his eyes, but it’s so hard, to force them open, and he tries a few times, still leaning in unto the touch, still straining his ears to listen to the sweet voice singing to him, something he’s never heard before, something that was so unlike the songs they used to sing in the castle.  
  
 _Where would we walk? Where would we run? If we could stay all day in the sun?_  
  
His hearing is getting better now, and his eyes pry open, still a little hazy, still blur from all the water that’s gotten underneath. Long, raven locks, falling in cascades sway in his vision, a pale, fair face framing mystical gray eyes staring right back at him. The eyes seem to jolt up in surprise, as if realizing Uruha was stirring up, and Uruha hears vaguely another small voice trying to persuade the raven voice to leave, but the person remains intact, still clutching Uruha’s face in his hand, still singing softly to him.  
  
 _Just you and me, and I could be… Part of your world._  
  
“You can’t be…” Uruha’s coughing up water as he speaks, finally finding enough strength in his hand to move up and clasp it over the person’s touch. The person seems to jump up in surprise at that, having never expected that, and when he tries to withdraw his hand, Uruha’s tugging at it tightly, refusing to let the person go.  
  
 _Aoi, I told you he’s not going to let you leave! He’s going to bring you home and cut you up into pieces, and he’s going to sell your scales to the place they call a market. Now how am I ever going to answer up to your father? He’s going to be the one chopping me into pieces, this time._  
  
 _Kai, I said shush! I wouldn’t have brought you out with me if you were going to be this noisy!_  
  
 _Just leave already! He’s going to wake up and realize you’re not human and he’s going to –_  
  
 _He’s not going to kill me! He’s a good person! Didn’t you hear the story mother told us before? She was saved by a human, too! He let her go! Humans are good!_  
  
 _Aoi, I’m begging you as a fellow… well, fish._  
  
 _You’re a Flounder, Kai. If you haven’t realized I’m not exactly like you._  
  
 _I’m so glad you noticed, you dipshit. You’re a fucking mermaid. Hell, you’re more fish than you are human. And this man, right here, this man –_  
  
Uruha feels a small fin whack him right across the face. Ow.  
  
 _– is going to be having you for dinner if you don’t leave with me right now. I’m telling you, Aoi, I’m begging you, princess, leave with me –_  
  
Uruha feels like he finally understands the situation.  
  
“You’re a mermaid?” Uruha chokes out, more so because of the water rather than fear, but when he strains his eyes open once more and the sunlight dawns into his eyes and he can move and –  
  
Fuck no.  
  
He’s gone.  
  
~  
  
Uruha’s sitting upright now, wondering where the hell he is, and wondering  _who_  the hell saved him, but more so the latter, because honestly he didn’t expect to be alive and to be alive is already a credit on his part, so. He’s alone, of course, he didn’t expect any survivors, but then he remembers his uncle and the child and the woman and what about the good ol’ sailor who told him all about mermaids and – Uruha’s grasping at his blond locks, feeling his heart swell at the thought of everyone he’s met and loved dead. He doesn’t have time to mourn, however, because there are more pressing questions, like –  _how the hell did he get here and when and… why is his hair so dry?_ It must have been dried from hours of being in the sun, and he wonders just how long he’s been out here, and he wonders how many days have passed since the accident. And also  _who was singing to him, what was singing to him, hell was that a fish too that was talking and was whacking his face with his fin?_ Uruha’s never experienced so many mysteries all in the span of three days – if it was even three days – and by the time he’s breathing normally and he’s calmed down from his frantic thoughts and he feels sane enough to live on, he looks down and realizes the blouse that’s on him is torn and tattered and revealing parts of his bare chest, his skin for some unknown reason unhurt and unscarred with little bruises on them, and his pants are ripped but still wearable, and… he’s complete, in one piece, no going home missing one arm or the other.  
  
He’s thankful, but he knows he wouldn’t have gotten so lucky without a person’s help. And it brings him back to the question of  _who saved him, what saved him, who what when where why and was that really a fish who had whacked him with a fin because goddamn that shit still hurts_ and  _he’ll give him a whacking when he finds that goddamn fish because_ – …right. Uruha was supposed to figure out a way to go home.  
  
Uruha’s sighing, turning his head left and right, trying to make out where he is. He can see a town in a distance, buildings and houses and human-life probably, so he better make his way there before the sun sets and it’s unsafe to remain lying on the shore like this, with torn clothes looking half-naked and still moaning over a goddamn fin whacking his face. He knows it  _must_  have happened, the singing and the talking, but a quick look around the vicinity tells him there’s no one there anymore, but a part of him doesn’t want to leave, and a part of him wants to stay and… remember that beautiful raven hair and those mystical eyes and that soft touch of his hand as he caressed him and begged him to stay alive and then sung and… told him he wanted to be part of his world?  
  
Was Uruha going crazy?  
  
Uruha’s blinking, shaking those thoughts away from his head, sighing as he tried to get up from the sand beneath him. His leg stumbles as he walks, and he realizes he must have sprained something because it hurts and he feels so weak, and as he falls back to the ground, he realizes he  _probably_  can’t make it out of here by sundown, and the thought depresses him further.  
  
 _He can’t walk, you see? Kai, just let me help him! He’s hurt! I can’t leave him here to die!_  
  
 _For fish’s sake, Aoi, the last time I checked he was still breathing and his heart was still beating. He’s not going to die._  
  
 _I can’t let him die I can’t let him die I can’t let him die I can’t let him die_  
  
 _I GET THE POINT. Just go to him, do whatever, I’m not going to be responsible for –_  
  
“Who’s there?” Uruha’s voice croaks as he speaks, and it silences the two voices immediately.  
  
“No way,” A voice whispers, and Uruha hears the loud splash of a water, before a head timidly moves up from behind a big rock nearby in the waters, Uruha recognizing the long raven locks of his immediately. The eyes are gazing back into his again, and the blond has never felt more captivated before, having never seen eyes gleam like that before. The raven hides the lower half of his face behind the rock, shyly staring back to the blond prince, and Uruha finds it too amusing to watch, his face scrunching up into a small smile.  
  
“You’re still here?”  
  
“I, um…” The goddess-like person stutters, clearly embarrassed, and Uruha hears the loud slap of a fin against him, and the beauty before him muttering a silent  _excuse me_  before –  _Kai I said stop hitting me or I will personally whack you back down to father’s kingdom – I told you he was safe just shut up and let me speak to him you little –_ the raven looked up again, awkwardly smiling back to the blond prince. Uruha wonders if they realize he can hear everything they’re saying, even from here. “I didn’t think you could understand our… language.” Even as he says this, the raven is visibly scared, and his voice is soft and timid. There’s a slight hint of accent to the way he speaks, though, something foreign and sounding traditional, and Uruha thinks to himself,  _that’s cute_ , and then stops his mind before it goes further.  
  
“I understand everything perfectly,” Uruha cocks his head to the side, chuckling, taking in the presence before him. “You saved me, right?”  
  
“H-Huh?! Um,” The raven’s gaze is nervous, looking hurriedly back and forth. “From the boat? I guess so, yeah…”  
  
“Thank you so much,” Uruha says, and he swears, he has never seen anything redder than the cheeks of the goddess before him. The raven tries to hide his smile, but nothing escapes Uruha’s eyes, and it’s just comfortable silence between them before a loud  _whacking_  disrupts the silence again and Uruha laughs, knowing it must be the raven’s friend again.  _Aoi, just leave already!_  
  
“What’s your name?” Uruha says, blatantly ignoring the smaller voice that seems to be nagging at his goddess to leave. The raven’s eyes brighten, as if he’s been waiting for that very question, and he nods rapidly, too excited to answer. It takes him a few seconds before he realizes he’s not answering the question at hand.  
  
“My name is Aoi,” Aoi nervously splashes the water with his tail a little, and Uruha begins to see a glimpse of it moving from behind the rock, glistening beautifully under the sunlight. It’s predominantly turquoise, but it seems to gleam silver under the sun. Uruha’s heart stops for a moment, taking in the sight before him. It’s… beautiful. It’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, and the old sailor was right; he was right in every aspect. The tail seems to radiate a different color every other second or so, because now it seems to carry off a hint of pink, along with its lovely pale green shade, and Uruha’s so captivated by the sight, he doesn’t realize he’s not paying Aoi attention anymore, and Aoi realizes he’s allowed the human to look at his tail, and he freezes up and falls back down into the water, limp. “Igottago,bye!”  
  
“No no no, come back!” Uruha’s calling out hastily, his heart fluttering madly in his chest. He’s never seen anything like Aoi before, and he doesn’t want it to leave. And he’s even realized Aoi can communicate with him, and he can’t just let this chance slip away! He wants… Aoi… The realization dawns unto him faster than he can speak.  
  
Yeah, he never was going to get married at this rate.  
  
~  
  
“Please come back,” Uruha whispers, upset, and it seems to halt the mermaid in its stance. “Aoi, right? You’re so beautiful.” The water slowly calms down, no evidence of a tail trying to get away anymore.  
  
 _Don’t fall for it Aoi, he’s going to bring you back as his meal_. The second voice is piping again.  
  
“I won’t eat you!” Uruha quickly shouts, horrified at the idea of consuming the raven. Ugh, he needed to convince the mermaid to come back to him, but how?  
  
“I don’t eat… fish!”  
  
… Well, it was the best he could manage in this situation. And it wasn’t  _exactly_  a lie, I mean, Uruha doesn’t eat fish… raw. Uncooked. Y’know.  
  
“You… don’t?” Those eyes were moving up the large rock once more, gazing warily to the human. Uruha held back a laugh; Aoi looked too cute like that, hiding behind the rock all curled up like he was going to be dead meat.  
  
“I don’t…” Uruha’s lips curved into a reassuring smile. “Will you come here, and talk to me?”  
  
“I…” Aoi chewed his lip, looking down to his tail in disdain, wondering if he could trust the human to not do anything to him.  _But he’s so beautiful!_  “O-Okay.”  
  
“Come here,” Uruha patted the empty spot on the sand next to him. The waves crashed silently before his feet, and Uruha watched as Aoi hesitantly – but surely – flipped his tail underwater, gracefully and smoothly, making his way to the shore. He can vaguely spot a bright yellow and golden blue colored tropical fish still hiding behind the rock, looking suspiciously to Uruha, and Uruha wonders if that’s the second voice that’s been speaking all along. What a cutie; Uruha had thought it to be another mermaid, just like Aoi, but it seemed to just be a flounder. Uruha inwardly laughed.  
  
He turns his focus back to the raven; the mermaid was nothing like he’d ever seen, his tail sparkling in the sunlight, and even underwater; and his hair, trailing long down to his back, his chest, smooth and fair and looking pink with temptation, Uruha’s eyes mildly distracted with just how… untainted the raven looked, how pure, how…  _safe_. Did that mean Aoi didn’t meet with much dangers underwater? Or maybe he was protected, too, just like Uruha, just like a  _prince_  – Uruha’s eyes widened, suddenly remembering the way his friend had affectionately termed Aoi  _princess_. Was Aoi of royalty, too?  
  
Aoi carefully moves up the shore, only allowing his upper half of his body to be on shore, seating himself against the line where the water meets the sand’s edge, still immersing his tail underwater. He sits a distance away from Uruha, still a little in distrust of the human, but more confident in speaking to him up front like this than before. Aoi looks down to the water shyly, flipping his tail back and forth underwater, and Uruha realizes it must be a frequent thing Aoi does when he’s nervous and he’s scared, and Uruha’s thinking  _how cute_  once more, even before he realizes it.  
  
“I don’t know where to start,” Uruha laughs, admitting, watching the mermaid before him. Aoi still doesn’t dare to look up, but Uruha won’t force him to yet. He wants the raven to trust him, afterall. And since Uruha had convinced Aoi to come to the shore to speak to him, Uruha would have an upper hand advantage since he was human, and they were both on land. He understands why Aoi wouldn’t trust to go too near Uruha yet; and frankly, Uruha wouldn’t advise Aoi to come too near too. Because all that’s running through his mind now is  _kisskisskiss –_  
  
“You could tell me your name,” Aoi murmurs softly, and though his hands are down on the sand and he appears to be calm and collected, he’s flipping his tail excitedly underwater once more. Uruha laughs.  
  
“My name is Uruha. But… people usually call me your highness… or Prince Takashima.”  
  
Aoi looks up to him immediately, wide-eyed. “You’re a prince!”  
  
“Maybe,” Uruha chuckles, liking the idea of Aoi looking thrilled at that thought. “I’ll rule my kingdom someday, so… it was very important that you saved me, thank you.”  
  
“You’re a prince, that’s so exciting!” Aoi’s flipping on his back, flicking his tail delightedly in the water. “I’ve always heard of all these stories, about princes and kingdoms and knights and swords and and and they save the princesses and happy endings and fairies and godmothers and – ” His face goes all sullen though, at that thought, and Uruha frowns, feeling worried for the raven.  
  
“What’s wrong?”  
  
“Are you…” Aoi buries his face in his hands, plummeting head first into the sand, looking dejected as ever.  
  
“What’s wrong, Aoi?”  
  
Aoi rolls around the sand a few times moaning silently in agony before he finally speaks again. What could possibly be so upsetting that it was making Aoi –  
  
“Are you…” Aoi stifles a sob. “…betrothed?”  
  
… Uruha thinks he’s in love.  
  
~  
  
“Does it matter, Aoi?” Uruha’s asking, first, not wanting to tell the raven the answer just yet. The mermaid’s face looks utterly crestfallen at the thought.  
  
“You’re right, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter,” Aoi’s flipping his tail underwater sadly, leaning his body back into the sand, burying half his face into it. Uruha thinks he’s going to die of cuteness overload.  
  
“Aoi, I know we’ve just met, but you can always talk to me, you know?”  
  
“I’m okay,” Aoi’s tail goes completely dead in the water, falling down with a big splash. He doesn’t move for a second or so. “I’m okay I’m okay I’m okay.” Uruha realizes it’s another one of Aoi’s habit to repeat the things he says, to comfort himself or reassure the person he’s speaking to – Uruha can’t tell.  
  
“Well… then, are you betrothed?”  
  
Aoi’s tail flicks up immediately.  
  
“No?” Uruha’s guessing. He smiles a little at the raven’s silence. “Is that a no?”  
  
“Does it matter, Uruha?” Aoi’s voice cuts through the silence. The way the mermaid whispers out his name sends a cold chill through the blond, and Uruha wonders how it’d feel to hear that name being called out repeatedly as Aoi’s writhing under him and moaning out for  _Uruha, Uruha, Uruha…_ – oh for god’s sake, now he was even imagining mating with a mermaid.  
  
“I’m not, you know,” Uruha says teasingly, and Aoi’s rolling over his back quickly, his tail flipping animatedly underwater. The raven peeks an eye out, glancing to the blond.  
  
“You’re not?”  
  
“I’m not.”  
  
“No princesses?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“No fairy godmothers?”  
  
“Not at all, sweetheart.”  
  
“Soo… no one’s waiting for you at home?”  
  
“Well, other than my mom, and my dad, and like ten thousand other people whose lives I’m responsible for, then… no, Aoi.”  
  
“You’re not!” Aoi sings, getting up from the sand happily, looking over to the blond with a smile. Uruha watches him as the raven’s hair falls over his face, his mystical eyes lighting up, his pink lips curling up into a sweet smile.  _Oh dear god help him if he doesn’t kiss him right now_  – “I’m not, too! I’m not betrothed to any prince or princess. Daddy always says he wants me to marry, already, but I tell him I’m only nineteen, I can’t marry so young! But he says he’s worried because I run off wandering the sea a lot and he needs someone to make sure I don’t end up getting eaten by sharks or worse, meeting humans and then getting made as meals because mummy almost ended up as meal but but buttt he forgot that mummy was actually saved by the nice old fisherman! Daddy’s wrong! And then two days ago he ended up assigning Kai that noisy flounder to me and now I have to keep running around with that yellow blue fish following me and he keeps telling me  _no,_ I can’t touch that,  _no_ , I can’t touch this, and when I saw you and I saved you he was nagging at me like never before telling me I was courting my own death but but buttt you’re so handsome and I find out you’re a prince and you’re not betrothed and I think that’s perfect because I’m a prince and I’m not betrothed too and I – ”  
  
Uruha’s doubling over in laughter by now, looking amusedly to the mermaid before him. Aoi seemingly realizes what he’s just said and he’s blushing furiously, looking away embarrassed.  
  
“And you… what?”  
  
“It’s nothing,” Aoi looks down to his hands, curling his tail up next to him. “I’m rambling on again, mummy says I always have this problem when I’m excited and it’s going to get me into trouble one day but I don’t know why I talk so much I…” His cheeks go peach pink when he realizes he’s doing the exact thing he’s talking about. “I’m so sorry, you must think I’m really stupid.”  
  
“You’re not.” Uruha’s voice soothes, and Aoi looks up to him in an instant.  
  
“I’m not?”  
  
“You’re amazing.”  
  
Aoi blushes once more, and he looks down to his hips, hands gently brushing down his scales. “Please don’t say these things.”  
  
“Can I touch those?”  
  
“Hmm?” Aoi gazes up to Uruha, and he shivers as he looks to those brown eyes once more. Uruha’s inching his way closer to him by the second, and for some reason, it doesn’t make Aoi nervous anymore.  
  
“Your scales. They’re beautiful.”  
  
Aoi buries his cheeks in his palms in excitement. He’s going to let out steam at this rate, Uruha thinks, laughing, and when Aoi nods, looking away bashfully, the raven moves closer to the prince, curling up his tail to him, extending it out for the blond to see.  
  
The scales really gleam in the sun. Uruha’s hand slightly trembles as he reaches down to brush against them, and though they appear to be hard and stiff, they feel soft under Uruha’s touch, softer than a feather, softer than anything Uruha’s ever touched before. It doesn’t feel like the usual slimey scales that would appear on a fish; it feels… different, it feels  _human_ , it feels like skin, only softer and more… pleasing to the eye. The scales are all neatly arranged, intricately patterned, and Uruha has to suck in a breath as he moves his hands over them once more, feeling Aoi twitch under his touch. He really was beautiful.  
  
Uruha caresses one particular scale, watching as it reflected different colors from turquoise to green to blue to red then yellow and pink  _and_  – Aoi quickly makes a yelp, moving his tail away, hiding it under the waters once more. The blond frowns, his hand still in the air, touching what would be the scales underneath just a second ago.  
  
“Don’t do that,” Aoi mutters, flustered, and Uruha wonders what he’s done wrong.  
  
“You said I could touch it – ”  
  
“Yeah, but not like…  _that_.” Aoi’s tail is dancing nervously in the waters again. “It’s just… I’m extremely sensitive.”  
  
Uruha leans back, smiling. “Did it feel ticklish?”  
  
“N-No.” Aoi’s hiding his face once more, allowing his hair to fall over him, shielding him from Uruha’s gaze. “It’s just…”  
  
“ _Only lovers do that!_ ” A smaller voice calls out, and Uruha looks forward, forgetting that Aoi’s little flounder friend was still here. The bright yellow and golden blue colored tropical fish swum its way to the shore, looking crossly up to the blond haired prince. “ _Aoi! I can’t believe you let a human touch your scales!_ ”  
  
“He… He asked for it!” Aoi’s tail flicked happily in the waters. “I… didn’t think he would…”  
  
“Wait, what do you mean only lovers do… what?” Uruha looked to the fish, then to Aoi. Someone had some explaining to do.  
  
“You don’t touch a mermaid’s scales, period.” The flounder – Kai, was that its name? – frowned up to the prince. “You don’t, unless you’re Aoi’s father, mother, or someone planning to marry him.”  
  
Aoi was on the verge of letting out steam again. “Kai, stop that! He’s human, it’s different. He just… wanted to look at them…”  
  
“Yeah, and tell me you don’t want to marry him. Honestly? You’ve been inquiring about his betrothed status for a whole ten minutes back there.”  
  
“I didn’t mean it like that!  _Kai_ , stop talking! You’re scaring him away!”  
  
“I’m not getting scared by a fish, don’t worry.” Uruha laughed, reaching out a hand to clutch at Aoi’s arm, only for the raven to jump back immediately in response. “Wait… I’m sorry, can only lovers do that, too?”  
  
“Hey! Don’t touch my Aoi!” Kai’s vigorously flipping his fin in the waters. Uruha knows he’s trying to look intimidating to the blond, but to him, it just looks like a small fish looking constipated and trying to scare someone ten times his size. “Or I’ll whack you again, you dipshit! Don’t think I won’t do that!”  
  
“No, it’s fine, you can touch me.” Aoi looks to the blond shyly. “It’s just, I got startled, that’s all.”  
  
“Don’t you dare touch him again you dipshit – ” Uruha ignores Kai’s cries as the blond moves in, closing the distance in between him and the raven, his hand reaching for Aoi’s one.  
  
“Is it fine like this?”  
  
Aoi feels the blond’s calloused hand brush roughly against his soft palms. He interlocks their fingers together, slowly, carefully, and Aoi has never been more happy, allowing his hand to be held in Uruha’s.  
  
“Mmm.” He nods softly to the blond, and his heart strums quietly in his chest, realizing he was falling far deeper in love with the human than he thought.  
  
Uruha allows his shoulder to be used when Aoi leans against him a few minutes later, and he doesn’t complain when they watch the sunrise together. They have so many questions and things to talk to each other about, but for now, Uruha knows the feeling’s going to be at least mutual.  
  
And he’s okay with that. God didn’t quite let him down after all.  
  
“ _I’m not letting you marry our precious Aoi you dipshit human! Don’t underestimate me, I will –_ ”  
  
Uruha kicks Kai in the face and prevents him from yapping further into the silence.  
  
~  
  
“I caught fish for you,” Aoi says, after he’s disappeared from Uruha’s sight for an hour or so, claiming he needed to do something important. It’s nearing night now, and Uruha never would have thought Aoi would have been going to hunt, sourcing for food for the human. Aoi tosses the bunch of fish he’s stuffed into his mouth onto the sand next to Uruha, flicking his tail shyly in the water behind him. “You need some food, afterall. I know you say you don’t eat fish, but I hope you can eat these. I got Kai to help me get some clams, incase you really dislike eating fishes.”  
  
… Uruha really shouldn’t have said that to Aoi awhile ago. Kai comes up the surface, spluttering out a bunch of clams from his mouth onto the sand. He still looks pissed at Uruha, but by the looks of it, he really doesn’t have a choice, having been ordered to protect Aoi from the King.  
  
“You really didn’t need to,” Uruha says, looking gratefully to the raven, and then to Kai, who winced as Uruha extended a hand to pat at him. “I’ll survive.”  
  
“I would have left you here to die, but Aoi threatened to break my fins, so.” Kai folded his fins. “Not my choice, but you’re welcome anyway.”  
  
“I don’t really know what humans eat, but I really tried!” Aoi looked up hopefully to the blond, ignoring Kai beside him. He flopped himself up onto the shore, moving in closer to the blond, gathering all the food into a pile. “Usually, we mermaids eat them raw, but I’m really not sure what you humans do.”  
  
“We start a fire.” Uruha smiled to the raven, then eyed around the shore for some wood. “I’ll go source for some wood to make one, just wait here, okay?”  
  
Aoi would have offered to help, but he wasn’t quite sure what kind of ‘wood’ Uruha was referring to, and he rarely saw them underwater. So he waited.  
  
Uruha limps around, thankful that there are some trees nearby, and he gathers the fallen wood into his arms, limping back quickly to the similar spot. He didn’t want to leave Aoi waiting too long or anything like that.  
  
Aoi watches the blond as he starts up a fire effortlessly with the wood he’s gathered, and his eyes grow bigger by the second when Uruha roasts the fishes over them, something he’s never seen before.  
  
“So this is how you humans cook,” Aoi admires the blond with a happy sigh. “I’m learning so much! See, Kai? It’s so great to explore.”  
  
“Your father’s going to kill me, and you know it,” Kai mutters to himself crossly.  
  
“Do you want one, Aoi?” Uruha offers a cooked fish up to him with a stick, and when Aoi eagerly nods and outstretches his hands for one, the blond shakes his head and gestures for the raven to hold the fish by the stick as well. “It’s going to be really hot, Aoi. You’ll get hurt.”  
  
“Okay!” Aoi holds the fish quickly by the stick, then brings it to his mouth. He stares to it curiously, licking a tiny part of it first, and then drawing back in pain when he realizes Uruha  _really_  meant it when he said it was hot. He waits for it to cool down, then drops it into his mouth at one go, eating it whole, much to the surprise of Uruha. Uruha’s jaw drops open for a second, then he laughs at the barbaric way Aoi goes about eating it, and shakes his head, chewing at his own fish. Aoi  _really_  was interesting. He’d never meet anyone like him again. And then it occurred to him; didn’t Aoi have to go home? If he had a father and a mother and… Uruha gazed to Kai who was lazing quietly by the shore.  
  
“Kai, will you be bringing Aoi home soon?”  
  
“No!” Aoi widened his eyes, shaking his head quickly. “No no no! I’m not going home!”  
  
“I’m _so_  glad you asked, human.” Kai flopped over to face Aoi with a cunning look on his face. “You see, we haven’t exactly been home in two days…”  
  
“I’m not going home! I’m staying with Uruha!” Aoi quickly flopped his way to Uruha, curling up next to the blond prince. Uruha chuckled at Aoi’s fright, and he might or might not have consciously placed his arm over the raven, protectively shielding him from the flounder fish. “Uruha’s going to let me stay with him! Right, Uruha?”  
  
“I would,” Uruha said thoughtfully, looking over to the raven with a smile. “But it would be really irresponsible of me to keep you here when your parents are waiting for you at home, Aoi.”  
  
“They’re not! They’re busy with a lot of things! They have to maintain peace and order in the kingdom! They won’t notice if I’m gone for one more day!” Aoi shook his head insistently. “Oh,  _please_ , let me stay with you!”  
  
Uruha’s heart drummed loudly in his ears. “I’m not denying you of that, but…” He looked over to Kai unsurely, wondering if it was the best decision to keep Aoi by his side. He wanted Aoi to stay, desperately, but the mere thought of forcing a nineteen-year-old prince to stay on land with him just guilted his mind; his ruler instincts just told him it wasn’t the right thing to do. Plus, if the fish was so uptight about him just touching Aoi’s scales, then he wondered if it would even be appropriate to spend a night with the mermaid, even if they didn’t do anything (hell, Uruha couldn’t even figure a way out to do anything lewd with the mermaid even if he wanted to.)  
  
“How about you swim home with Kai, then come back here the next morning?” Uruha asked, realizing the raven was staring up to him now, begging him with those beautiful eyes he’d spotted and been captivated with since this morning.  _How am I going to resist them_? “Aoi, you’re not an adult yet, you know. Your parents must be worried.”  
  
Aoi’s face crumbled instantly. “Not this again. You think I’m a kid, too?”  
  
“You  _are_  a kid,” Kai pointed out. Aoi flipped him off with his tail.  
  
“I can’t go home then come back here the next day,” Aoi said, and when  _even_  Kai doesn’t speak to reiterate that, Uruha realizes something is wrong. “If I go home, I don’t think I’ll come back at all, Uruha.”  
  
“It’s too far,” Kai explains, and Uruha’s heart twists at the thought. “We’ve crossed at least two borders to get here. Aoi’s crazy.”  
  
“What he means is that… I kind of crossed two kingdoms to get here.” Aoi sighed helplessly. “I don’t know how to measure it to you in terms of human speak, but just know that it’s very, very long.”  
  
“How did you two end up swimming so far?” Uruha asked softly.  
  
“Your boat crashed in between the two borders, and I had to find land desperately. It was either this, or the land nearest to my kingdom, but even then… it was further than coming here.” Aoi curled up in the blond’s hold, looking to the sea with the moon shimmering in the distance. “I read from books that humans couldn’t survive under water for too long, so I wanted to get you to land as quick as possible.”  
  
Uruha breathed silently. “You didn’t have to.”  
  
“But you’re fine now!” Aoi gazed longingly up to the prince. “And you’re a prince! You have a kingdom to look after! You’re important! People look up to you! You…” He quietens down when a certain thought passes over all three of them.  
  
“You’re a prince too,” Uruha said quietly.  
  
“Thanks man, I didn’t want to be the one to say that and get whacked by Aoi again.” Kai chipped in. Aoi still whacks him with his tail anyway.  
  
“Will you go home, Uruha?” Aoi’s voice is soft, wavering in the silence.  
  
Uruha may joke around about his life sometimes like how he first did when his boat crashed – but he knows his responsibilities, and he knows he has to own up to them. His father and mother – the king and queen – are waiting at home anxiously, and he wonders if news has gotten to them about the ship’s sinking. He wonders if his people think he is dead. He wonders if his parents are already mourning. He wonders if people are already wondering about the new ruler. He wonders how many people are already setting out to look for him.  
  
“I will go home, Aoi.”  
  
Aoi looks down to his tail. “I see.”  
  
“I probably have to, the next morning. I need to tell someone I’m alive, I can’t let my parents think I’m dead.”  
  
“Aoi, don’t you see?” Kai’s voice is quiet, and more serious this time. “Mother and father are always worried, too. You know you’re our future ruler and we can’t have you dead. Even the people back at home, they all look up to you, they love – ”  
  
“I get it!” Aoi yells, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out he’s crying. There are tears in his eyes, and Uruha’s suddenly guilty for having brought this upon him. He wraps his arms around the raven, and he’s almost sorry for not having anything to warm Aoi up with, since he’s had to endure being in the cold for the past few hours or so. But Aoi doesn’t seem to care, his head burying into Uruha’s chest, hiding his tears from everyone else.  
  
“I’ll go home, okay? I’ll go home and be what everyone wants. I’ll go rule that damn kingdom and I’ll stop exploring and saving humans. And I won’t fall in love with humans, okay?! Never again! I’ll listen to you, Kai, I…” Aoi’s collapsing into sobs again, and it breaks Uruha’s heart to see the beautiful raven like this. He’s beginning to have a soft spot for Aoi, he really does, but despite having fallen in love with him this afternoon, he realizes he’d be selfish if he forcefully took Aoi away with him, just for his wishes and his gains and  _damn_ , that Kai would whack him so hard on his face with his fin again Uruha thinks he wouldn’t live to see another day. Okay, he might have exaggerated, but you get the point.  
  
“I’m really happy I met you, Aoi.” Uruha’s threading his fingers past Aoi’s hair and he’s kissing the tip of the raven’s head. It seems to calm the mermaid a little, but he’s still sobbing, hugging Uruha close to him.  
  
“But I… I… oh,  _hell_ , I wanted to marry yoooooouuuuuuu…” Aoi’s drawling his sobs out, crying even harder than before, and Uruha chuckles a little at that, kissing the mermaid’s hair once more. It was so easy to see through Aoi’s intentions and words; he was so transparent, so easy to read, and so adorable at it, too. Uruha had guessed that Aoi wanted to be with him romantically even before he’d outrightly confessed he wanted to marry him; and what Uruha wanted to let Aoi know was that he shared the same sentiments, too.  
  
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Aoi.” Uruha strokes the raven quickly, trying to caress him into oblivion. “Aoi, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and that’s never going to change anything, okay? Even when I’m married ten years down the road” – if he ever marries, Uruha grimly thinks – “I’ll be thinking of you, even when I meet my own princesses and princes and fairy god mothers and have happy endings and…” He’s holding back his own tears as he recalls Aoi’s words to him. “I’m going to be thinking of the beautiful mermaid I saw, saving me from the shipwreck, the one who let me touch his scales and did so much for me. You’re going to always be in my thoughts, sweetheart. I’ll never forget you.”  
  
“I’ll never forget you too, Uruha!” Aoi bawls harder, jumping onto Uruha, tackling him to the ground. Uruha has to hold back his laughter, watching those shimmering eyes of Aoi’s gaze sadly right back into his, Aoi’s raven hair falling over his face as he does so. It’s just like before, just like that same afternoon, where Aoi had helped bring him to shore and helped him breathe and sung to him and saved him and…  
  
Uruha’s smiling bitterly to himself, and then with an on the spur decision, he reaches up and catches Aoi’s lip with his, stunning the teary-eyed raven immediately. The raven freezes, obviously at a loss of what to do, but when Uruha deepens the kiss and tangles his hands up higher into the mermaid’s hair, Aoi flutters his eyes shut and leans into him, feeling his heart beat like never before, feeling his tears seep down even as he kisses the blond passionately, sweetly. They kiss a few more times before Kai finds it appropriate to clear his throat and whack his fin against Uruha’s injured leg, and  _then_  they pause and stop and take a breather.  
  
And Aoi cries harder.  
  
They spend the night talking all about their worlds, the human world and the mermaid world, and Uruha and Aoi learn things about each other’s lives that they’d never have otherwise known if they hadn’t met each other. Aoi promises Kai that he’ll leave the next morning when Uruha’s ready to head off, but when next morning comes and the sun rises up and they’re  _still_  talking, Uruha wonders if he’ll hold true to that promise.  
  
But then Uruha accidentally falls asleep when Aoi’s describing to him avidly about the  _dinglehopper_ that he’d seen while swimming up an abandoned shipwreck a few months back, and Uruha mumbles out that it’s a  _fork_ , not a dinglehopper as Aoi so particularly affectionately named it, and Uruha tells Aoi he’ll bring back more for Aoi if Aoi so wants, and maybe Aoi could visit him sometime, and maybe they could make visits a weekly thing if they missed each other too much – because, to be frank, their promises of ‘leaving to rule their own kingdoms’ were just empty promises and all were to be discarded after  _that_  kiss they shared which meant they were more important to each other than they both had first thought – and after discussing the possibilities of how frequently they could see each other, and Aoi fighting with Kai constantly about coming back –  _you said you were going to be a good prince and listen to me! – but but butt Kaaaaai! Uruha kissed me!!! We’re still going to get married, right?_ – Uruha falls asleep, halfway, because he hasn’t slept all night and he doesn’t mean to fall asleep when Aoi’s talking but he falls asleep anyway;  
  
and when he opens his eyes again, Aoi’s gone.  
  
Uruha’s cursing himself, because he must have been asleep for what, ten minutes? And Aoi found it the appropriate time to swim away, leaving him alone like this. He’s missing the mermaid already, and the dull ache in his heart reminds him that they may never meet again, because they didn’t even make plans or anything, and  _fuck_ Uruha should have stayed awake to at least make some plans with the beautiful raven.  
  
But then he’s surprised when he sees one of Aoi’s scales lying in the raven’s place, a beautiful, sparkling turquoise shade, gleaming silver and showing his reflection as he holds it up and brings it to the sun. It had felt soft like skin on Aoi, but now that it’s been plucked out, it’s hard and stiff, just like a shell, and Uruha briefly notes to himself that he’d make it into a necklace, something he’d wear constantly to remind himself of the beautiful raven.  
  
The scale must be the only gift Aoi’s left him, a remembrance of him, and Uruha brings it to his lips and kisses it softly, remembering the lips he’d kissed just the night before.  
  
~  
  
“ _I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now_ ,”  
  
Aoi sings softly to himself, still hiding behind the rock, watching as his blond prince kissed the tip of his scale whilst still lying on the sand. Aoi blushes, feeling giddy with happiness, and he sighs, turning away with one last glimpse of his charming prince. It’s time to go home.  
  
“ _Watch and you'll see, some day I'll be part of your world…_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I will go down with this ship. <\-- Pun. Did anyone catch that? YEAH. ANYWAY.
> 
> Comments if you love, so I know people like mermaid stuff <33


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